Congresss Centre & "S.Francisco Convent"

Coimbra, Portugal

jlcg arquitectos, Lda

The intervention comprises the construction of two new buildings: the church foundation where the car park and the auditorium will be localized, the Convent Building remodeling and remodeling and its adaptation to new functional spaces. The three areas are structurally independents, in order to guarantee its autonomous operation and its construction in different stages of time.

It was adopted a lightweight slabs solution using concrete blocks fungiformly supported in a columns grid and on the reinforced concrete retaining walls. The implementation of the retaining wall close to the convent is considered the higher risk intervention, assuming the necessity of making the facade foundations repavement with micro-piles to avoid the appearance of cracks in the walls.

The intervention in the Convent is divided into two main parts. The first is the rehabilitation of the masonry walls and of some vaults, which show some pathologies and second, the construction of new slabs, which materialize the new defined spaces (reversible intervention in order to preserve the original structure as possible). To this purpose it was defined a metal structure connected with plugs to the walls of the convent, where the pavement metal beams are settled. Whenever possible, there were adopted intermediate supports in order to reduce the level of loads transmitted to the existing walls and foundations.

The remaining facilities stand out for the diversity of systems, designed to the specificity of the place, the type of construction and their function in the context of the overall building.